12. Discuss: As you saw in the first part of this activity, meat is a nutrient-r
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Question
12. Discuss: As you saw in the first part of this activity, meat is a nutrient-rich food source. Global meat production per person more than doubled between 1960 and 2009, primarily as a result of rising demand for meat in the wealthiest countries. Consumption of meat and other animal products has risen in many economically-developing countries as well in recent years. While small amounts of meat can help address vitamin and protein deficiencies that plague the world's can have many negative environmental impacts. Discuss some of the negative impacts of large-scale, often industrialized meat production. Speculate on how some of these impacts can be mitigated as the global demand for meat is likely to continue growing.Explanation / Answer
IMPACTS OF INDUSTRIALIZED MEAT PRODUCTION
Global meat production has tripled in the past three decades and could double its present level by 2050, according to a new report on the livestock industry by an international team of scientists and policy experts [1]. The impact of this is likely to have significant consequences for human health, the environment and the global economy [1].
1.Less land for humans
More than 1.7 billion animals are used in livestock production worldwide and occupy more than one-fourth of the Earth's land [1]. It’s a leading cause of deforestation [2].
2.Spread of diseases
Human health also is affected by pathogens and harmful substances transmitted by livestock, the authors said. Emerging diseases, such as highly pathogenic avian influenza, are closely linked to changes in the livestock production but are more difficult to trace and combat in the newly globalized marketplace [2].
3.It’s a leading contributor to droughts [2]
Full-grown cows and pigs consume massive amounts of water, as does producing the feed required to keep them alive. Every pound of beef uses a staggering 2,500 gallons of water, which is roughly equal to taking a shower every day for six months. Most of the water goes into growing the food needed to keep the animals alive and at peak meat-giving weight; only 2 percent of it is drank by the cows. In the United States, half of all water goes to supporting animal agriculture [2].
4.It diverts grain from countries that could use it [2]
About 800 million people are undernourished. Even in developed countries, malnourished people count for 12.6 percent of the population, while in Africa, one out of four people experience hunger problems. Hunger accounts for 45 percent of deaths for children under five years old. Accurately estimating the amount of feed required for every pound of meat is nearly impossible, but it falls somewhere between 1–3 kilograms (2–6 lb) of feed per pound of finished meat. This means that meat provides fewer calories than it takes to produce it. If the raw grain used for feed went into producing edible food for humans, those calories would directly go to hungry stomachs. Of the countries that are experiencing hunger problems, 82 percent use sizable portions of their grain to feed cows and pigs that will be eaten in first-world countries. In 2008, two billion tons of grain were consumed, but only half of that went directly to humans. Some of that grain went to biodiesel or to alternative energy [2].
5.It increases worldwide obesity and cancer risk [1, 2]
Recent studies have shown various negative effects of meat consumption. Red meat specifically is linked to an increased chance of cardiovascular disease and decreased heart health. Beyond the risk of obesity, eating processed meats has also been recently shown to (very slightly) increase the risk of certain types of cancer. The common refrain is that meat is necessary to give enough protein for healthy development. Meat industries use their sizable resources to bribe government officials into pushing incorrect nutritional guideline and perpetuating this myth. The average first-world consumer consumes twice as much protein as they actually need, mostly due to inaccurate advertising and publications about nutrition. When it comes down to it, vegetables and fruit give the essential protein content necessary for maintaining health, without risk of obesity or cancer. Unfortunately, the widespread influence of meat producers has spread the myth that dangerous meat products are the ideal form of protein intake [1, 2].
6.It’s a leading cause of ocean dead zones and water pollution [1, 2]
the meat industry is also polluting our oceans to the point that oceanic dead zones are growing more each year. A dead zone occurs when there is not enough oxygen in the water or there are too many other chemicals, which causes the animals in the zone to suffocate and die. The biggest known dead zone is in the Gulf of Mexico. Runoff from the Mississippi River has caused a 15,000-square-kilometer (6,000 mi2) swath of water to be completely uninhabitable for oceanic life. Every year, livestock produce 130 times as much waste as humans. Unfortunately, waste management practices dump a lot of that into the oceans, which destroys marine biodiversity [1, 2].
7.It’s one of the leading causes of mass extinction
We could be facing fishless oceans by 2048, for more reasons than oceanic dead zones. Fishing is wildly unsustainable. Every year, fishermen pull 90 million to 100 million tons of fish from the ocean, leading to 75 percent of the world’s fisheries being overexploited or completely drained. Besides the fish, industry practices are also killing off other marine animals at an alarming rate. Because fishing nets and other methods are imprecise, for every pound of harvested fish, five times’ worth of unintentionally caught marine animals are pulled up. This equals 2.7 trillion animals being killed every year by commercial fishing, including thousands of whales, dolphins, sharks, and seals.
8.It massively contributes to global warming [1, 2]
The livestock sector, including feed production and transport, is responsible for about 18 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions worldwide [1].
A single cow produces nearly 150 gallons of methane per day. Animal agriculture also produces 65 percent of all human-related nitrous oxide emissions. The damage that nitrous oxide causes is not well-known to the public, but it has 296 times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide [2].
Much of the greenhouse gas emissions generated by industrial livestock occur indirectly, through the production of grains to feed to animals that then get fed to humans. In 2010, about one-third of all cereals on Earth went to animal feed, and the FAO predicts this figure will reach 50 percent by 2050. More feed means more land under cultivation. And feed crops like soybean, maize, and sorghum are usually grown with chemical fertilizers, themselves another potent source of greenhouse gas emissions [3].
Solutions
One solution is for countries to adopt policies that provide incentives for better management practices that focus on land conservation and more efficient water and fertilizer use [3].
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